My new Dell Mini 9

After much thought then anticipation I finally broke down and purchased a shiny black Dell Mini 9. On President's Day Dell ran a $199 special for the base model with Ubuntu as the OS. The 4GB SSD hard drive was enough for me since I was upgrading from an Asus Eee 701 with very meager specifications. But I did order a 2GB DIMM to get the little laptot going with a little more oomph.

After receiving it yesterday and using it in the real world today and I am thoroughly impressed by the multimedia capabilities for movies and music. The sound is very good for even the base model. The Dellized instance of Ubuntu is very user friendly and I can see why many of the ones sold are the Linux ones. You don't need experience with command lines, terminals, or even repositories. The Dell/Ubuntu quick guide tells one how to be up and running in no time on wired or wireless Internet and the included software is very intuitive.

In fact, I have already taken a peek in Dell's Outlet and they have refurb'd units starting at $229. Even with XP as the OS that's a great deal.

e⋅con⋅o⋅mist /ɪˈkɒnəmɪst/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [i-kon-uh-mist] –noun 1. a specialist in economics. 2. Archaic. a thrifty or frugal

Another historical day for the DJIA and this recession inches closer to a depression. Our policy makers are listening to economists who by their occupation are not entrepreneurs or business leaders so why oh why do they seem to have all the answers?

This past few months the liquidity has been literally stolen out of the private sector by our own government then force fed to companies that may or may not need the money. What can only follow now is the nationalization of top U.S. industries. If we thought we lagged behind the global economy before well we just took three giant steps backward:

1. The U.S. federal government is now the largest debt holder of American private industry.
2. There is no consumer confidence and therefore no trust in the marketplace for a bottom to be found anytime soon.
3. The American taxpayers are broke and have nothing more to give to this out-of-their-mind Congress and White House.

The mindset of "everybody for himself" is starting to set in and the answers are not found in politicians and spending bills. I pray one day soon, that Americans will turn back to a government of the people, by the people, and for the people will thrive again.

This is not a left or right, republican or democrat, or even a conservative or liberal issue. This is about what is right and wrong. And there is a whole lot of wrong going on....

Rise of the small machines

I posted an earlier blog about Microsoft bringing XP out of an early retirement to fight the new wave of netbooks shipping with Linux.   But the real story here is why everyday Americans who usually hold to the mantra of "bigger is better" are flocking to them in groves and made them one of the best selling tech products of 2008.

I read an interesting article this past week in Wired magazine with the following sentiments: Back in 2000 when our first child was due I went out and traded our trusty Subaru Legacy wagon in for a GMC 2500 HD (Heavy Duty) Suburban with a 454 V-8 that got 10mpg.  What a great truck. It was huge, fast, and huge!  But after driving it for awhile I quickly found out it was not good for the ole' daily commute and grind.  Then some parts needed replacement and GMC thought very highly of its HD line and charged accordingly.  It was all that we wanted but waaaay more than we needed.  It was soon traded in and replaced by a much smaller and economical Mazda MPV van when gas was going out of sight at $1.50/gallon.  ;-)

This is like the new fifteen and seventeen inch wide screen portable desktops that are available at the local electronics store with dual-core processors and 4GB of RAM that can double as small enterprise servers in a pinch.  They are not good for daily commuting either unless your idea of light is a 7 or 8lb. anchor in your bag.  Well, what is quickly being discovered that most of the time spent on a portable PC is mostly made of web surfing, social networking, and e-mail.  All of which can be accomplished by a sub-$500 netbook with a 4GB SSD, 512MB RAM, etc.

While I'm not stumping for everyone to have small, portable laptots I am advocating spending within our budgets and understanding what the PC is exactly used for then purchase for the individual purposes instead of the one-size-fits-all big box store recommendations.

And this back-to-basics mentality is just right for this new economy.

Gather 'round the PC kids, let's see what's on the WWW tonight....

Last year I almost purchased the DVR service and receiver from Dish Network but after a shocking call with Dish I decided against it because of all the fees heaped upon loyal customers who want more service. Alas, I did downgrade my service to the lowly Family package that has programming geared towards the G-rating scale, but I have recently been watching more and more TV over my 6mb Internet connection.

We have a 42" plasma screen in our living room that is connected to a satellite receiver and it has a VGA connection to a free standing laptop that has WiFi access. We can now watch television shows and movies anytime we want on Hulu.com and various corporate sites such as NBC and CBS. Since it can be viewed in full screen and in 720p it is even better quality than if I watched via satellite.

So other than saving some money I utilized my existing Internet connection even more. And that is good all around.

Lions, Tigers, and Firefox oh my!

As my FF extensions were updated this morning I was reminded on how increasingly applications are being accessed by us on the WWW.  Given that more and more apps are exposed to web services and being accessed by legacy apps the browser is becoming even more of a services portal. 

Today's browsers are customizable with extensions that do everything from removing ads to filling in forms.  And this is just the beginning.  We're only a few years into the Web 2.0 phase after the dot com bubble burst and it seems there is no slowing down.   The phenomenon of social networking will push the envelope even further in the near future. 

Just more proof that tomorrow's OS is today's browser. 

The gospel according to Android

This past week my partner in crime at Red Hat finally saw the light and converted to the faith of Android.  Like me he was a longtime user of BlackBerry, but when he neared the end of his contract I talked up the only available open source smartphone on the market: the T-Mobile G1 (Google One).

Being RHT employees we already understand the value of an open operating system that doesn't have to be jailbroken only rooted.   And we get all the goodness of Google apps, funding, and innovation that come along with the privilege of membership. 

Domo arigato Mr. Roboto. 

Happily sent from my G1

Cheap PC's are en vogue. Thank you Linux.

While Moore's Law marches on for processors and consumer electronics most Americans are opting for technology that's "so last year". But Linux is the OS at the forefront making netbooks affordable and keeping Microsoft at bay by forcing them to offer XP on comparable offerings. If/when Windows 7 debuts it will already be well behind the curve for a portable operating system and will come in several flavors that will probably make most consumers scratch their heads with confusion.

This new emergence of low-end computers is made possible by running Linux. This allows PC's to run as little as 2GB and 4B SSD hard drives, 512MB, and 900mHz processors. Most PC's with those specs and other operating systems with bloatware/antivirus/customer service add-ons would not even boot much less run seamlessly all day accessing full versions of Java, Flash, and Silverlight web apps.

My 2yr old Asus Eee 701 PC is still running strong with minimal specs and it just keeps going and going and going and going.....

JBoss virtual show with real customers

Yesterday I was able to participate in JBoss' first virtual tradeshow dubbed JBoss Virtual Experience. Sometimes I get so involved in my own day-to-day working with Dell I forget that we at Red Hat have great buzz for JBoss.

There were many success stories of how our customers are kicking costs out of their IT budget and using more and more open source components in their infrastructure. The worse this economy gets there will be even more scrutiny on every dollar spent and weighing wants versus needs. And open source companies like Red Hat will be happy to lend a helping hand.

I was proud to be a part of the conference and enjoyed all of the sessions I could attend. It is gratifying to see all of Red Hat's hard work come to fruition.

Ciao iPhone

After what has certainly been a love/hate relationship I bid farewell to my first generation iPhone. If all goes right tomorrow I will be selling it to a happy owner that I found on Craig's List.

I am the first to admit that Apple hit a home run with the iPhone interface and form factor but I quickly grew tired of its numerous shortcomings. No need to list because they are all over the WWW but I found to be the iPhone the worst mobile phone I have ever owned for voice use.



I have had numerous free (read carried subsidized phones) that outshone the Apple in most areas. Most of the iPhone's features were on my first Palm III and HandSpring Treo phone. No, what makes the iPhone special is the AppStore and the mobile internet experience but certainly for the phone capability. My G1 has push e-mail, a full QWERTY physical keyboard, can run multiple apps in the background, MMS, copy/paste, a removable battery, a non-crashing-once-every-five-minutes web browser, and to boot it's open source.

Maybe Apple should have called it the iMobile or iWeb. But iPhone?

Dell gets Linux!

I came across the above post when I was looking for Dell Mini 9 reviews specifically running Ubuntu Ultra Mobile Edition. I currently run UME on one of my laptops but the Dell Mini runs a customized version of the interface that proves if the GUI is slick and the OS is as stable as Windows it can have a future.

Even though Dell usually gets negative press for their support and lack of quality they deserve props for building a quality netbook with a choice between Linux and Windows.

The BarakBerry

Oh the scuttlebutt and speculation over the new Prez's BlackBerry usage! Based on the nature of his communication for national security and such I was surprised at his adamant demand for it. Basically, he won't take no for an answer.

This is usually enlightening but in this case it just looks foolish. There is already too much information on too many servers and this is the most powerful person in the global economy and our political environment.

With the recent press of MP3 players and mobile phones being purchased on eBay with classified U.S. Army contact info; I wonder what would happen if Obama ever lost or has his Berry stolen. Would the American public even be notified or would it just show up on Craig's List unidentified? I guess we'll never know.

Does Linux really have a chance?

There seems to be an evolution in the IT space where system integration is migrating to browser integration. Therefore the browser is the new application platform. When this happens the platform operating system will have less import because the application will not be native but in the cloud.

Enter Linux. Think of this is as the second coming mainframe technology. Applications being available through web portals though instead of emulators. Eventually users will be able to access their application no matter what code it was written in and the OS will need to be the following: CHEAP, fast, secure, standards based, and open source (if possible).

I can think of quite a few that fit the above description.

Close but no cigar Microsoft

The WWW and the blogosphere is alive with positive reviews of Microsoft Windows 7 beta running on everything from smartphones to netbooks. The biggest contributor of this is the failure of Vista. The OS that was summarily dismissed by major OEM's and home consumers alike. In fact, Microsoft extended XP support and use just to make people happy, not something they are accustomed to doing.

This is akin to asking Pontiac if any other car sold better than the ill-fated Aztek.



W7 is almost the service pack that Vista should have been but it is likely a marketing reason since a name change was in order but Microsoft is use to doing this as well, i.e. the Millennium debacle.

They are actually listening to their users and their community by making a light weight OS that can run on a computer that is not spec'd out like a WoW gaming rig. But here's where they fall short, they will still only sell one OS at a time and not support all versions for a seven year life cycle. Can you imagine if Microsoft open sourced their bits and adopted a subscription model like the enterprise Linux distros? No more legal threats and "Dark Side" like mentality towards their customers, just good software where people and companies would gladly pay for support.

And that my friend, is precisely why I work for Red Hat.

TGIF

Given all the recent press on our economy and the state of the state and just before the GDP numbers are revealed to abysmal results I find myself being more thankful than ever.

I not only enjoy working at Red Hat but I believe I am apart of something much bigger than myself and that is Choice. We help individuals and enterprises endeavor to have choices when it comes to software, services, and the financing of those products.

I am grateful for the support my wife and children give me when they try to speak to me during work hours not knowing that I have a wireless headset in the other ear taking making and taking calls all day. And it is great knowing that the family understands that I am working for them as much as anything else.

Even with day-to-day annoyances there is much more given to me than I am giving back. I am happy to be part of a family/community/church/country/employer where each individual can make a difference for the greater Good.

One more....

And this has nothing to do with digerati anything other than the modern F1 race car is the most technologically advanced automobile on the planet.

T-Mobile ad in the UK

I am an ardent customer and supporter and T-Mobile and thought this commercial was innovative and refreshing:

Open source conversation

Pretty cool that I had the opportunity to talk with one of the associate pastors at my church this morning about the difference between Internet Explorer and Firefox. He had some issues with IE and I recommended that he download and try FF. He had never used it and he had it up and running with imported bookmarks and all in about five minutes.

Just because there is no charge for either browser doesn't mean it is free. Trust me, if you've ever gotten a Trojan Horse or any other worm virus via IE it is NOT free. There is a lot of pain and suffering that happens to you and your PC.

We also talked about the difference between a monolithic, proprietary license company and a volunteer community centered around the interest and desire for good software.

This is the foundation for any group based on open-source/religious/social/hobbyist community: love. And when you love something you set it free.

Stairway to heaven

Given the dearth of new articles coming out after the new year two in particular caught my attention: Peak of the Netbook (Engadget) and Death of SOA (Google it). Here are some reasons why I believe that this is not true and why these two technologies are symbiotic.

The acronym may be dead but Service Oriented Architecture is alive and well. More and more enterprises and customer facing companies are moving their business to the web and are utilizing common messaging platforms to communicate to multiple applications, platforms, and databases. The applications are being fronted with web interfaces so that they can be formatted for the new wave of mobile internet devices (MID's) whether they be iPhones, netbooks, etc. I have before stated that the browser is our new OS and given that reason more and more data can be offloaded to the SaaS app and it keeps its state in the data center and not on your PC.

Netbooks are getting more RAM, processor speed, and hard drive space but my current Eee 701 only has a 630Mhz processor, 512MB and 4GB SSD and yet I can access any and all websites that I need for e-mail and occupational hazards. Even with these puny specs I am able to "git'er done" because the applications do not live on my PC, but live in Zimbra hosted e-mail, Salesforce.com, Facebook, Google...

So how do companies get to the data heavens? What is their stairway?
- Build an application that can be written in a web language then interconnect.
- Virtualize when you can, early and often.
- Have a common messaging bus that can communicate to all internal apps then let them talk to the internet and live on the web.
- Understand that your apps will be accessed by customers and companies who are on the go.
- Wash, rinse, and repeat.

Virtual Reality

Here is an example of cloud computing versus onboard sync'd storage:

My T-Mobile G1 wirelessly synchronizes with my Gmail, Google Calendar and Contacts AND receives OTA updates as needed. My iPhone needs to be hard wired sync'd with one particular laptop with its' iTunes profile for back-ups, sync's, restoration, and OS upgrades. So my G1 and Google services are more available to me than when I update information on my iPhone. Because just the iPhone is updated but not my Google services. Here is where the cloud comes into the picture.

For me, the winner is the G1. As more and more of us become mobile and use our browsers as miniature operating systems utilizing AJAX, Java, and the SaaS model we will be plugging more and more into virtual computing clouds to get our data and needing less native storage on our interface devices. Whether I use Gmail on my PC, G1, or any other device I could care less WHERE Google's servers are just that they are available.

This short tutorial gives a good understanding of how and why cloud computing is valuable:



Way back in 1998 in the 20th century at Compaq Computer we were told by vendors like EMC that one day we would have virtual storage that could be added on as simple as plugging into an electric wall socket. Well my friends, we're almost there. The Enterprise space is already doing this by virtualizing the operating systems then the applications for high availability and the virt data is being homogenized into a storage cloud that can be accessed by web API's and used anywhere a browser is available.

Today's workforce is increasingly more distributed and remote than ever before and the data we need usually come in two transports: e-mail and the world wide web. The new netbook phenomena along with new mobile internet devices (MID) like the iPhone, G1, BlackBerries, and every other new smartphone coming out has turned us into constant consumers of information.

Whether it be constant Facebook updates, Google Reader, or VPN'd corporate e-mail we all need our fix.

Multiplicity

Mobile computing choices are increasingly becoming more like trying to purchase a pair of shoes. When I go to the store with my kids to buy their plethora of athletic shoes I need to know what what sport with which they will be used: basketball, softball, or football? Each type of shoe has a unique purpose in order to do its job well. For example, I wouldn't buy them metal spiked cleats for the gym floor so why do I see MANY air travelers literally lugging around 17-inch desktop replacements as mobile laptops?

Now I know what you're thinking, it costs a lot of money to purchase multiple PC's for specific uses. Not really.

Here's how I did it:
- Purchased a slightly used Asus Eee 701 7-inch netbook from a disappointed user from Craig's List for very little because he thought it too small for daily use. Paid $300.
- Bought a 1st generation iPhone from a buddy of mine when he told me that was upgrading to the new 3G version. I unlocked and jailbroke this unit the first day I had it. I now use it on T-Mobile and it runs on WiFi with my trusty ATT login at all McDonald's, most airports, and all Starbucks. Paid $125.
- A work provided Dell 12-inch D410 laptop.
- And lastly upgraded my Blackberry Curve to the T-Mobile G1 running Google's open source mobile platform, Android. Upgrade fee $175.

So for the price of mid-range laptop I now have three separate units for a total of $600. The above mobile computers are particularly adapted for traveling and/or remote users. So now, I too have a "shoe" for every playing surface.